The past couple months has been a slow one for using up products it seems – like anything else, when it rains it pours, but in those in-between times, it seems to be a bit of a drought.  I’m just on the precipice of finishing a handful of products, but before that happens, I want to round up all the items that I finished before I began my beauty challenge – I want to be fair and transparent (lol can you tell I work for the government?), so when the time comes to match products used to products bought, I’ve got clear evidence to show you that I’m still following the guidelines.  Meticulous to a fault, eh?The list of products below are pretty boring, I have to say – most weren’t very memorable and I wouldn’t repurchase the majority of them.  There are also a handful of samples that seemed to take AGES to finish, despite some being tiny.  Anywho…enough chat – let’s hop to it!Phyto Phytheol Intense Shampoo and L’Oreal Total Repair conditioner.  The former is an anti-dandruff formulation which I had hoped would help with my seasonal dry scalp, which I thought was dandruff.  Turns out, its more likely dermatitis, as per my dermatologist – surprize, surprize, the girl with eczema has one more skin issue to worry about.  Yay….   Anyway, this didn’t do a lick for my scalp, but since I don’t seem to have dandruff, I can’t really give it a fair rating.  I think there are probably treatments out there though that are more effective and far cheaper than this.

L’Oreal’s Total Repair conditioner was OK, but absolutely nothing to rave about and to be honest, I just stopped using it a few weeks ago and already I don’t remember what it was like.  It wasn’t as hydrating or as smoothing as I wanted it to be, so there’s that.  I can tell you that I already enjoy my current conditioner, an Infusium23 product, wayyyy more.  I bought this because it was on sale.  End of story.Philosophy’s Purity cleanser.  I’m sure everyone and their dog has tried this basic product at some point.  It’s a good standby and I didn’t have any issues with it, but jeez louise this size lasts AGES.  I know that’s a great thing for some, but for Miss ADHD here, I get bored halfway through and am just dying to use something else.  I always feel that there could be something better.  This cleanser didn’t irritate my skin, but I didn’t find it soothed it either, and right now while I’m fighting tooth and nail to keep my skin under control (this cold, cold Winter is doing a major number on it!), this just isn’t going to cut it.  Great for slightly sensitive skin or, of course, non-reactive skin in general though. The Body Shop’s Wise Woman Eye Cream, Ole Henriksen’s Truth Serum, and a mini jar of Vaseline (though apparently I took the label off…?).  The Wise Woman eye cream was nice, decently hydrating but nothing crazy either way, so if you’re super oily/dry, you’ll probably need something else.  It didn’t help with my dark circle, which was one of it’s claims, and I’ve had other eye creams that kept my undereye area more supple.  But for $24CAD, it was a decent price and lasted me a good year or more.

I’m not going to talk anymore about Ole’s Truth Serum – I know you’ve heard enough!!!  If you haven’t though, or need a refresher, see my original post here.  I’m on my second bottle of this now.

Ah, Vaseline.  A medicine cabinet must, even though overall I’m not a fan of petroleum.  But I use this on my lips every night before bed and my pucker stays nice and hydrated for the most part, so for the couple bucks it costs, and the length of time it lasts (seriously, like 2-3 years for this tiny thing…crazy), I’ll keep on buying it!Another Vaseline product – Intensive Rescue Soothing Hand Cream.  I really liked this a lot – it wasn’t as occlusive as the Neutrogena Norwegian Formula, but it softened my hands big time and kept them moisturized for hours.  It even helped with some of my eczema patches, which is always a bonus in my eyes.  It had a relatively thick consistency but abosrbed fairly quickly and didn’t leave my hands greasy.  I can’t remember the price but it was something like $8.99 – around the same as Norwegian Formula etc. Here’s a sample size of Aveda’s Smoothing Body Polish.  I haven’t owned a body scrub in a while – in keeping with staying away from abrasive products as a whole, I’m sort of off the scrubs – but I picked this up in the Fall and used it sporadically here and there.  It had a fairly good granular quality though I never felt that I left the shower super-smooth, so not sure what that was about.  It worked better on damp skin than fully wet.  I wouldn’t buy the full size.More samples!  I’ve had the Amore Pacific Treatment Enzyme Peel for years, but finally got on finishing it last year.  It was pretty great, actually – the scent made me nervous, kind of floral and pretty strong – but it didn’t seem to irritate my skin that I noticed.  It comes as a fine powder, with you put in the palm of your hand and add water, then it foams and you apply it to your face for 30-60 seconds and the enzymes exfoliate.  It did make my face feel really smooth afterward, and this sample, if I had used it consistently (say, every 2-3 days) would have lasted me a few months – you only need a bit of powder each time.  If there were no fragrance, I’d pay the $60-odd dollars for the full-size of this; crazy price, but it was pretty lovely.

The CoverFX Nourishing Foundation Primer and Anti-Aging Serum was another sample that lasted quite a while considering its just a little packet.  I normally don’t include those types of samples, but because it lasted so long I thought it was worthwhile.  If I recall, Liz did a post on this a few months back, that was pretty thorough.  I don’t remember it too much, but I think it was nice enough – definitely more like a treatment serum than a primer, as Liz noted.  I think there are a bunch of different formulations of these, and they aren’t cheap, something like $39CAD?  I wanted to buy one but the packing is sooo tiny for that price!  Funny the things I’ll shell out for and those I won’t eh?

That little sample jar on the right was the Philosophy Help Me that I tried out.  I still maintain that it worked quite nicely considering my skin is almost always flared up and red these days – it didn’t add to the irritation – but the fact that the retinol in the ingredients is soo far down the list concerns me.  Obviously that would contribute to why it didn’t irritate my skin, but at the same time – do I want to pay $59CAD for a product that doesn’t really do what I bought it for???  The sample lasted almost a full week using it nightly though, so it seems to go pretty far.Finally, some makeup!!  Though sadly, only one product here is full-size; the others are all sample sizes.  Nonetheless, I got through them!  Here you see a random eyebrow comb that broke (both ends – the comb part you still see is just attached for show) which I included just because.  Then we have a Clinique Lash Doubling mascara sample – this is probably my second fave mascara by the brand after High Impact.  Gives nice volume and some length, but doesn’t clump at all.  Then below it, is one of Clinique’s Vitamin C Lip Smoothie’s in Strawberry Bliss.  The lip smoothies have antioxidants in them to help keep the lips healthy and more youthful looking.  This shade was just a dark but sheer pink shade, but it was really nice and I think the color would look good on almost anyone.  However, this sample went fast – I didn’t use it all that often and even so, it was gone in two months.  I also found that the texture of the gloss is a bit thicker than I’d like – not a big issue, just something of note.

Underneath the lip smoothie, we have a Long Last Glosswear SPF15 by Clinique, another sample size, in Knockout Nude.  Nice cool shimmering beige-nude shade that looks good on most skintones, but I find the newer glosswears with SPF get sticky faster than the old ones without sunscreen.  And they get funky after a while and develop this nasty plastic-type smell.  No thanks!  You can see I didn’t finish it – and I don’t plan to! I also didn’t finish the L’Oreal On-the-Loose shadow pot in Five Alarm below it – if you recall I swatched this with my new L’Oreal Infallible shadow I bought a few weeks ago, and realized how much nicer and more pigmented the newer one was.  And also, I had to bite the bullet that this old shadow was over 10 years old, so it HAD to go.  It’s still got about a 1/4 of the container left, but…oh well!

Lastly, we have a sample jar of a MAC Pro Longwear concealer (shade NC42).  I included this because this was another sample that lasted forever – I had this for several months and was using it on my undereyes almost every day.  It was ok – it covered my darkness but didn’t completely erase it.  I’m terribly fussy with undereye concealers and have yet to find one that lives up to my expectations, to take my review with a grain of salt – for some, this might be total love, as it does conceal better than some and is buildable.  However, the pump dispenser on the full-size is irritating because it gives too much product (you only need a small dot), so that’s a turn off.  I wouldn’t buy the full-size, which retails for $21CAD.

So there’s the rundown of what I’ve used up in the past while, up to January 20th.  Moving forward, anything that I finish now counts toward a new purchase – remember, its one for one in skincare, and two for one in makeup.  Sometimes this seems like no biggie, other times, I find myself just about to pull the trigger on a new product…..only to be reminded that I gotta use ‘em to buy ‘em!  Rats.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!!!  If you get out shopping, make sure you let me live vicariously through you OK???